You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

Thursday, May 08, 2014

Veracity in West Virginia 2

I have not followed the race for West Virginia's Second Congressional District until yesterday. I became interested in the race when I was provided documents revealing that one of the seven Republican candidates, Ken Reed, has an issue with his veracity. The documents clearly establish that Reed was less than forthcoming in a sworn statement he made.

The Facts

Ken Reed is a pharmacist. Unfortunately, in 2003, Reed submitted an Application for a new pharmacy permit to the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy. In the Application Reed "swore or affirmed" that no disciplinary action had ever been taken against his "Pharmacy Registration." That is apparently not true.

In 1999, the Pennsylvania State Board of Pharmacy Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs found that Reed violated "Section 5(a)(10)of the Pharmacy Act by virtue of the disciplinary action taken against his West Virginia pharmacy license by the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy [see Adjudication and Order]."

That finding clearly shows that what Reed swore to in his 2003 application was not truthful.

The Issue

I do not support any of the seven candidates in this Republican primary race. My purpose in reporting this issue is to make sure the issue is known before next week's primary election. The documents are out there. If Reed should win the May 13 primary, the documents may be used against him. So existence of the documents, and the veracity issue the documents raise, should be known to the Republican primary voters before they choose their candidate.

Perhaps the voters of the second Congressional District of West Virginia don't care about this. Perhaps they don't think veracity is important. Nevertheless, they deserve to know before they choose their candidate.

After all the order of Pennsylvania Board of Pharmacy quoted above was not harsh. The discipline was based upon Reed having made a "number of dispensing errors" on one day. According to the findings of fact, the errors occurred as he "a sixth straight 12-hour day because the pharmacist-in-charge was on vacation." The errors were quickly rectified and no patient was harmed. All of which makes one wonder why Reed would not admit to the discipline in his 2003 Application.

This race is to replace seven-term Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Democrat Jay Rockefeller.